Blog tidy and new unit notes

Obviously our Little House on the Prairie roll has slowed down here. We aren't counting it as gone and done yet, but it has slowed considerably as we drifted onto the Civil War trails. And we intend to get back on track, but we are still running with some Civil War era reading.

American History Links, Ambleside Online  about half way down the page you'll find plenty of Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Grant, and more. Nice unit here as well.
If you are looking for some good titles and need to place an order, definitely visit Amy Puetz for some Civil War resources.
Also plenty of free online sources here at Old Fashioned Education  We have a well-loaded iPad and Kindle with reading to enjoy! 

On our trail ride thru the Civil War, we branched off recently and found a quick summer reading unit from HomeschoolSwag, using Little Women (audio here), Swiss Family Robinson (audio here) and Around the World in 80 Days (audio here).

In fact, if you are on a Charlotte Mason plan with your schooling (or even if you aren't), there are some great planners and prayer page downloads at HomeschoolSwag's network of pages you'll enjoy so go check them out!

I am gathering some extra resources and units to blend into the HomeschoolSwag CM Summer unit above. No, we probably won't just go the as-is 6 weeks schedule, but you probably knew that, right? We will definitely do the whole map/geography skills and mini country lessons with Around the World in 80 Days, of course.  We could really dig deep with such a collection of locations routed  in the book: London, France, Egypt, India, Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, San Francisco, New York and Ireland.  Each with its own rich history, culture, landmarks and more.  The potential for handcrafts and other hands-on propjects, not to mention the culture-rich food studies...the possibilities are quite lengthy, fun and potentially delicious!

An obvious favorite resource here is The Trail Guide series. GeoMatters has a great selection of unit studies and curriculums for geography, and for what it might be worth, I highly recommend them!...Lesson Tutor has some chapter reviews/quiz pages (for several books and authors)...Links to All Things Free for Homeschoolers has a great collection of links, including these for geography and cultures...JoyfulPamela has a nice Squidoo Lens...Homeschool in The Woods geography links...SCORE pages on Around The World in 80 Days...World geography links by chapter and country...Homeschooling Ideas has several great pages, including a page of geography links and Around the World in 80 Days ideas

We will look into various connecting threads with Little Women and do some projects or crafts (might even go ahead and add Little Men to our reading.  Did you know Netflix has brought back the entire Little Men TV series? Definitely a fun watch and I'm so glad to see it back!)

Little Women study from GradeSaver...Little Women vocab lists, puzzles, and more from EdHelper...Various free and paid resources from Lesson Index (The Marching into Civil War Times is neat)...online flashcard vocab listing...Links and ideas from Web English Teacher.

I know we can find many great trails to branch off with reading the Swiss Family Robinson. In fact, we might save Swiss Family and work it together with our My Side of The Mountain reading we plan to do. The nature/animal studies alone in those two stories could easily fill an entire school term science run.

EasyFunSchool lesson plan for Swiss Family Robinson...LessonPlanet suggestions (maybe my olders should read Robinson Crusoe...they liked the TV series Crusoe, and you have the Pierce Brosnan movie...see how I bunny trail so easily?)...I love the links shared in this Squidoo Lens...For My Side of the Mountain we have these: Scholastic Teachers page discussion questions...Scholastic Book File, a 61 page PDF...University of Missouri eThemes page...Kid's Wings Activities page paid unit (a bit loud with the music and roaring, LOL, so check your volume)...Teacher Planet generic mountain pages...a Go Teach It 114 pg Paid PDF unit...Lesson Corner mountain worksheets...

These resource lists can go on and on and on...mountains and islands are one thing, there's the whole survivalist theme that forms the foundation of both stories and that opens an entirely new bunny trail of possibilities for lesson plans. And the nature studies to be had...OH MY!  One could easily go into a 2 year science run with just these two books...add in Robinson Crusoe and we're talking 3 years of some very interesting science lessons, nature studies of plants and animals, survival/wilderness skills, potential field trips and outings...not to mention you get to read some totally awesome books with your children.

What a bonus!